Wall Street Journal:
The WSJ’s Scott McCartney went nonstop from Newark, N.J., to Singapore, testing his tips on how to survive more than 18 hours on a plane to help you with your next long-haul flight.
The only way to get me on this flight would be at gunpoint. No way would I ever take this trip in coach. Longest I can stand on a flight is about 8-9 hours before I start getting seriously owly. My trip last year from Vancouver, BC to Sydney, Australia with a stop in Hong Kong was pretty much my limit. Two 12 hour legs and I was not a happy camper at the end of it.
We flew to England last spring and the only way I made it was by reserving the seats in the exit row so I could have some leg room.
His tip on saline nose spray is a great one. I used to fly a lot and got bronchitis every year but once I started using saline nose spray it stopped. That and washing hands or Purell went a long way toward making my life better.
The other part of flying that’s gotten worse is the stress associated with it. This isn’t stress from the plane bouncing around, this is stress from the airport and boarding process. Fighting the process is generally a mistake. Flow makes life easier. That and upgraded seats.
I add to that stress with my deep resentment of the TSA.
Upgraded seats ftw. Premium Economy gave us the leg- (and hip-)room we both needed. And Virgin Atlantic’s flight attendant crew were very proactive with distractions on the flight to and from the UK.
I don’t have resentment of the folks who have the actual TSA jobs, I have resentment of Homeland Security and the folks who tell them what to do.
On longer flights: cross country, cross ocean, I try to get business class seats. I’ve paid my dues in coach and even economy plus when I was flying on United a lot. I’m old and don’t have a lot of travel left in me so when I travel, I try to make it as pain-free as possible (within reason).
I recognize that the job-holders are just supporting themselves; what I resent is the agency’s existence as a crony-contract funnel for security theater, and its apparently limited interest in screening out individuals who’d abuse their power over travelers.
Agreed. But, again, the folks getting those jobs are needing a job and while this one doesn’t pay all that well, it has excellent benefits. I’m not supporting what they do, just that it’s a relatively easy job to get with benefits.
Its ironic though that Premium Economy legroom is what you used to get when you flew economy, instead of being really cramped like we are now.
Of course. The steady commoditization of everything. Shareholder value uber alles.
I’m going on a flight from Alaska to South Africa in a couple weeks… nearly 40-hours in travel time! These tips should help.
Why the hell would you move to Australia ?
There is no coach on this flight. (Only 67 business + 94 Premium Economy seats.)
I’ve done the Vancouver-Sidney and SF-Singapore runs many times. I start switching my clock over a couple of days ahead of time by changing my eating times. Wear myself out with exercise before flying. And I use over the counter sleep aids.
That said, it’s brutal.
It’s a little over 14 hours from Boston MA to Narita Japan, that is long enough for me. It takes an hour to get to Logan airport, and three hours to get from Narita to Nishi-Tokyo. 18 hours of no sleeping. I don’t dread it though, somehow. Maybe because I am up walking around the plane about every hour or so. I usually watch about 5 or 6 movies too.